Debugging Has a Methodology. Most Engineers Never Learn It.

Short summary

David Agans' debugging methodology teaches engineers to understand their system first—reading docs, knowing frameworks, grasping architecture, and knowing their tools—before attempting to fix bugs. Rule #2 emphasizes making failures reproducible and amplifying symptoms rather than simulating the failure itself. Key insight: testing API contract boundaries for 'black box' microservices can quickly locate whether failures occur inside or outside the box.

• •Understand your system before debugging: documentation, frameworks, architecture, and debugging tools
• •Make failures reproducible and amplified (e.g., higher concurrency, reduced heap) rather than simulating the failure mechanism
• •For microservices, test API contract boundaries to quickly determine if failures are inside or outside 'black box' components

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